Michael Bernitsas, professor in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, stands before a prototype of his VIVACE hydrokinetic energy device. (Photo by Scott Galvin, courtesy of the University of Michigan)
Some scientists think that
the future of energy is in water.
More specifically, it’s in slow-
moving water. Kyle Norris has more:
Transcript
Some scientists think that
the future of energy is in water.
More specifically, it’s in slow-
moving water. Kyle Norris has more:
Michael Bernitsas is really excited about using water to generate electricity.
“Marine renewable energy is huge. Water is the best natural medium for
storing energy.”
Bernitsas is a Professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the
University of Michigan. And he’s made this machine. Basically it’s a
cylinder that bobs up-and-down in a tank of slow flowing water. The
cylinder creates these swirls of water that hit a generator. And it turns the
kinetic energy into electricity.
Bernitsas thinks there’s a lot of potential to create clean, renewable energy
from flowing water. He says people could eventually put machines, like this
one, in rivers and power houses.
And he says bigger versions of the machine could go into oceans and rivers.
And generate as much electricity as a small coal-burning power plant.
Ray and Irene Zukley of Zion,
Illinois were forced to sell this Lake Michigan
beach cottage to make way for Zion Nuclear Station
back in the late 60s. The Zukley's and other Zion
residents hoped the plant would last for at least
forty years, but after fits and starts, it closed
fifteen years early. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
The Zion nuclear station is a
few hundred yards from the shoreline of Lake Michigan.
Its generators have been off line for more than a decade. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
Ray Zukley was a jeweler by trade. He
created pendants with images of the nuclear station's
twin cooling stations and sold them as reminders of Zion's
biggest economic boom. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
America has a new flirtation with
nuclear power. Utility companies are fanning
out across the nation to set up shop. And
they’ve given the government more applications
for new nuclear plants than they have for
decades. Many towns fell under the spell of
nuclear power in the past, but some power plants
stopped running decades earlier than planned,
and towns are stuck with what’s left behind.
Shawn Allee profiles one town’s tarnished
relationship with nuclear power:
Transcript
America has a new flirtation with
nuclear power. Utility companies are fanning
out across the nation to set up shop. And
they’ve given the government more applications
for new nuclear plants than they have for
decades. Many towns fell under the spell of
nuclear power in the past, but some power plants
stopped running decades earlier than planned,
and towns are stuck with what’s left behind.
Shawn Allee profiles one town’s tarnished
relationship with nuclear power:
Irene and Ray Zukley have been together so long, they finish each others sentences.
Especially when I ask how things were in Zion, Illinois back in the 60s.
Zuckley: “The factories were getting downgraded.”
Allee: “What were those?”
Zuckley: “It was the curtain factory, the cookie factory, chocolates and Zion fig
bars.”
But just then, the power company said it would spend hundreds of millions on a nuclear
power plant.
Irene Zukley says most people welcomed it.
“Ray and I never worried about it, you know we just wanted progress is what we
wanted. When you think of having taxes lowered for everybody in Zion, that made
you feel, what else would come in and do that?”
Irene and Ray Zukley were forced to sell their family’s beach cottage to make room for
Zion reactor number one.
Beachfront neighbors did the same.
But, like the Zukleys predicted, taxes and jobs rolled into Zion.
It was supposed to be a forty year windfall.
But it didn’t last.
When you visit the power plant, it’s nearly empty.
“What we’ve got here is what used to be a full-fledged control room.”
Ron Schuster runs what’s left of the Zion nuclear power plant.
Once, it had more than eight hundred employees.
Now, Schuster and about fifty workers help manage the regional power grid.
They also monitor radioactive spent fuel waste.
The generators have been offline since 1997.
“There were large pieces of equipment essential to making electricity that would
have needed total replacement going forward. We’re talking significant dollars so
the economic decision by the board of directors that Zion station would go into safe-
store mode.”
That means the power plant and Zion have been in limbo for ten years.
The radioactive fuel is still on site, but the plant provides no power, few jobs and a
fraction of the property taxes.
Delaine Rogers is Zion’s economic development director. She says the town didn’t plan
on this.
“You’re in a community that has welcomed you. We haven’t had an antagonistic
relationship. They’re not going to close. But they did. And it took 17 million dollars
of our local revenues. We were facing losing all our arts and music and sports in our
schools. How do you fund police the police department. How do you fix potholes? It
was a very scary time.”
Lately, the power company’s gone back and forth about when it will decommission, or
dismantle, the power plant.
It could be done ten years from now or it could take decades more.
But even when most of the buildings are gone, there’s still the radioactive spent fuel.
“They’re just going to leave it. They’re going to put a football-sized concrete pad
filled with 80-90 casks of stored fuel on site, above ground. Tell me how you get a
private developer to think residential or retail. I’m not buying the first condo.”
Dozens of towns are stuck in relationships with dormant nuclear power plants.
Delaine Rogers says the town of Zion is in the same position.
She won’t call it a bad relationship, but says it sure would be nice to know exactly where
it’s going, or when it will be over.
Rick Delisle co-owns two commercial buildings,
one of which is depicted in this photo that dates
from the time of Zion, Illinois' founding. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
The nuclear industry is eager to
build new nuclear power plants, but for
now they’re just far-off plans. The real
growth industry is in containers to hold
radioactive spent fuel. Dozens of closed
nuclear plants need somewhere to put spent
fuel waste, and these containers fit the
bill. Shawn Allee looks at why one town’s
bracing for their arrival:
Transcript
The nuclear industry is eager to
build new nuclear power plants, but for
now they’re just far-off plans. The real
growth industry is in containers to hold
radioactive spent fuel. Dozens of closed
nuclear plants need somewhere to put spent
fuel waste, and these containers fit the
bill. Shawn Allee looks at why one town’s
bracing for their arrival:
Illinois’ Zion nuclear power plant hasn’t produced electricity for eleven years.
It’s so close to Lake Michigan you can smell the beach. But other than that, the empty
parking lots and office space make the place seem dead.
The plant manager says that’s not the case.
“I think a lot of people have a vision of us playing cards or swinging our golf clubs
on the beach. I would say we’ve been extremely busy the entire time.”
Ron Schuster says he and other workers remove hazards from the station, like diesel fuel
and electrical equipment.
But one hazard is still here: the spent nuclear fuel.
And when the power plant is dismantled, that radioactive waste will be put in new
containers.
They’re concrete casks.
Schuster: “A cask is approximately fifteen feet tall. It looks like a small silo and
there is no radiation exposure on the outside of these things.”
Allee: “So from this office window, can we see where the casks might go?”
Schuster: “We’ve got four spots on this site that have been at least looked at. When
it comes time to actually put the fuel in dry-cask storage it will be a huge structure,
about as big as a football field.”
Schuster’s confident this will be a simple and safe solution.
Not everyone in Zion so convinced.
“This cask issue, just sitting on the site was never appealing to me.”
Rick Delisle co-owns two commercial buildings close to the power plant.
In other towns with spent-fuel casks, nuclear power plants sometimes get turned into non-
nuclear power plants or into parks.
But Delisle and the city of Zion are hoping to do more – maybe build new commercial
buildings or even homes.
Delisle says having concrete containers full of radioactive waste left on-site could make
their work harder.
“So, I hope the casks are relocated somewhere else. Having them next to a
population of about 23,000 people is probably not a great place for it to be.”
Other communities are in the same position – they’ll be left with spent fuel casks even if
their dead nuclear plants get torn down.
There’s a simple reason.
“We don’t really have a final resting spot for these casks at the moment.”
Dave Lochbaum is with the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.
“The federal government is way behind schedule providing a repository for high-
level waste.”
Lochbaum says the government has one storage place in mind.
It’s inside Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, but that’s still just being studied.
Power companies can sometimes move spent fuel to other plants or facilities.
But Lochbaum says politically, that just won’t fly.
“There’s no revenue from electricity being generated, so it’s a hard sell to go to a
community and say we’d like to have you store spent fuel for decades into the
future. The easiest way out is to leave it where it is, because those communities have
already accepted that fate.”
Well, cities like Zion say they didn’t accept this exact fate.
They bought into nuclear power for jobs and property taxes – they didn’t count on
babysitting spent fuel waste.
But that’s likely to happen, because the government won’t take it. The power companies
won’t dare move it, and the towns can’t move themselves away.
The brace can crank up to 20 watts with each step - that means ten minutes of walking can power a laptop for a half hour.
(Photo courtesy of Bionic Power, Inc.)
When you think about alternative energy
sources, you probably don’t include people on your
list. But Ann Murray reports that scientists are
tapping into bionic people power:
Transcript
When you think about alternative energy
sources, you probably don’t include people on your
list. But Ann Murray reports that scientists are
tapping into bionic people power:
Today, we really do have bionic technology.
(Opening of the “Six Million Dollar Man”) “Gentleman, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.”
Okay, maybe not to turn you into
the Six Million Dollar Man. But how about a mobile power plant?
Let’s start with the back story.
About 15 years ago, a couple of young
scientists, Doug Weber and Max Donelan, worked together. Donelan wrote
his grad school dissertation on the energy people create when they walk.
He asked Weber, now a biomedical engineer at the University of
Pittsburgh, to run with his idea.
“He approached me with the idea of building a wearable device that could actually harvest
that energy. And not only generate electricity but potentially make it easier
to walk.”
Weber and Donelan put together a rough prototype in his garage. A lab
tested version of their early demo was just published in the journal Science.
The bionic gizmo looks pretty much like a knee brace with a power pack
attached. Weber calls up a video on YouTube to show me how it works. On
the screen, a guy with a brace on each leg is walking on a treadmill.
“With each step he takes on the treadmill power is generated when the
knee is swinging in extension. It’s during that extension phase that we turn
on the generator and as the traces below the video show, generate large
peaks in power.”
Those peaks in power show up as the hamstring muscle “brakes” to keep
the leg from going too far forward. That’s when the bionic brace kicks in. It
grabs that potentially wasted energy and turns it into electricity.
The brace can crank up to 20 watts with each step. That means ten
minutes of walking can power a laptop for a half hour. No other lightweight
people-powered generator can top that.
Yad Garcha’s betting that people
will be intrigued. He’s the CEO of Bionic Power, a company formed to
market the brace. With some product tweaking, he envisions a world of
alternative energy possibilities. Especially for people who have to depend
on batteries or don’t have much access to electricity. His list includes
millions of people in developing countries, amputees, and soldiers.
“It is a green product primarily for the military because of the number of
batteries that they throw away.”
Garcha says, for example, Canadian soldiers carry up to 20 pounds of
disposable batteries.
“And these throw-away batteries cost a lot of money for them to get them into the
theatre or wherever they’re doing their fighting.”
Garcha’s already been talking to Canadian military reps about field tests.
But the brace probably won’t be ready for another year or two. The
prototype still needs to be quieter, lighter, and more efficient before it makes
its way into the hands – or rather, the legs – of consumers. Better move over
Steve Austin!
The Sappi paper mill in Cloquet Minnesota produces most of the electricity it needs, using steam that also powers the industrial process. Sappi can even sell power when demand is high. Electric co-generation is enjoying a come-back. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Keith Matzdorf and Rick Morgan maintain three electric generators at the Sappi paper mill. This one burns byproducts of the paper-making process, and returns steam to the process while making electricity. The equipment is from Czechoslovakia and Sweden. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
More and mores states are establishing a “renewable energy standard”
for their electric utilities. So far, wind power is producing the bulk
of renewable energy. But there are other sources. Some are brand new.
Others have been around for a long time. Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
More and mores states are establishing a “renewable energy standard”
for their electric utilities. So far, wind power is producing the bulk
of renewable energy. But there are other sources. Some are brand new.
Others have been around for a long time. Stephanie Hemphill reports:
The first thing to know about electricity is that making it can be
incredibly inefficient.
In a conventional power plant, burning fuel turns water into steam.
The steam drives a turbine, which spins the generator. Only about a
third of the energy in the original fuel is converted to electricity.
Two thirds goes up the smokestack in the form of heat.
“Every time you convert energy from one form to another, you lose
something. That’s just the way it is, ’cause nothing’s perfect.”
Dwight Anderson works for Minnesota Power. He’s lived with that
inefficiency for his whole working life. Now, he’s trying to wring
more electric power out of every bit of fuel.
He’s high on something called co-generation. The basic idea is to
harness the heat or steam that normally goes up the smokestack.
There’s a good example of co-generation at the Sappi paper mill in
Cloquet, in northern Minnesota. Like many paper mills, Sappi makes
most of the electricity it needs.
Engineering Manager Rick Morgan points to a mountain of wood chips:
“We have about 20,000 tons of biomass stored.”
That’ll last less than a month. The plant uses 53,000 watts, enough to
power a small city.
Inside the sprawling buildings, there are several electric generators.
One of them is fueled by a recovery boiler, which burns the byproducts
of the paper-making process, to run steam through a turbine.
“…The actual turbine is manufactured in Czechoslovakia and the generator’s
made in Vestros, Sweden.”
Higher pressure steam spins the turbine to produce electricity. The
waste steam from the same boiler goes to the pulp dryer, the paper
machines, and other parts of the process.
Back in his office, Rick Morgan says energy is the fourth largest
expense for paper mills:
“If you can’t control energy costs in this business, you can’t be in
business.”
The main product here is paper, but sometimes Sappi sells electricity
too. That happened during a recent cold snap:
“The electric demand increases and the costs go higher and higher, to
the point that it’s financially feasible for us to generate power for
Minnesota Power.”
Opportunities to produce electricity turn up in some surprising places.
Like along natural gas pipelines. The pressure has to be boosted
periodically as the gas travels through the pipe. Compressors fueled
by the natural gas do that work, and normally they vent off waste heat.
But now in South Dakota, the waste heat is fueling small power plants.
They look like the barns and silos of a farm. The generator itself is
about the size of a truck.
Basin Electric Power Coop spokesman Daryl Hill says the plants are
owned and operated by an Israeli company, and the co-op buys the power:
“We get basically 22 megawatts of baseload for little investment.”
Other countries are leading in these approaches because their fuel
prices have been so high. As prices go up in the U.S., power producers
are finding ways to use more efficient technologies, and they’re
returning to old-fashioned ideas like combined heat and power. This is
a form of co-generation that was once common across the country.
A central electric plant uses its waste steam to heat buildings. Of
course, most people don’t want to live next to a coal-fired power
plant. But Neal Elliott, with the American Council for an Energy-
Efficient Economy, says with combined heat and power, cleaner fuels,
like natural gas, can become competitive:
“Use natural gas, but use it much more efficiently. And instead of
throwing more than half of the fuel value away, let’s do it with co-
gen.”
Elliott says combined heat and power and other forms of co-generation
could provide 20% of America’s electricity needs, and save on heating
fuel at the same time. And he says recovered energy generation like
along the natural gas pipelines could provide another 20%.
For the Environment Report, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.
Bruce Banninger's RV replete with solar panels in California. (Photo courtesy of Bruce and Yvonne Banninger)
With the return of summer comes the return of Recreational Vehicles, or RVs, from their winter homes in the South. Nicknamed “road whales,” most of those homes on wheels have a bad reputation as gas guzzlers, but some of them are saving energy once they’re parked.
Solar systems mean the RVs don’t plug in to use electricity. Instead, they get some of their power from the sun. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cari Noga reports:
Transcript
With the return of summer comes the return of recreational
vehicles – RVs – from their winter homes in the South. Nicknamed
“road whales,” most of those homes on wheels have a bad reputation as
gas guzzlers. But some of them are saving energy once they’re parked.
Solar systems mean the RVs don’t plug in to use electricity. Instead,
they get some of their power from the sun. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Cari Noga reports:
Michigan RV owners, Bruce and Yvonne Banninger, take all the comforts of home along when they hit the road. Their big RV has a flat screen TV, surround sound, and even an electric bread maker. But they don’t have to hook up to power at an RV park, or start up a portable generator. To run all those appliances from the remote places they like to park, the Banningers rely on three solar panels mounted on the roof of their RV. Bruce Banninger says he wouldn’t want to motor home without the panels.
“We do a lot of boondocking, they call it, or not being plugged in. We like to just park out along a stream or a lot of places like that and you need power, and I don’t like running the generator all the time. And so the solar panels pretty much take care of it. On a sunny day.”
The Banningers have had solar since they got their first RV in 1992. Bruce Banninger says the fairly low cost, lack of maintenance, and the environmental benefit are the biggest reasons why RV owners like solar.
“I figure that for every panel that we have – solar panel – we can save running the generator one hour a day. And so when you figure out long term, that’s quite a savings. And you’re not burning a non-replaceable fuel. The sun, hopefully, will shine a long time yet.”
The Banningers have relied on their solar panels everywhere from California to the Everglades and on up into Canada. They found most U.S. National Parks don’t have electrical hookups, making solar pretty handy there.
“There’s something neat about being able to park out anywhere, and have all the power you need. It’s a good feeling; you’re self-sufficient.”
There’s not a lot of data on how many RVs use solar panels. But solar suppliers and RV manufacturers agree that it’s an option more RV-ers are choosing these days. The independent Michigan supplier who sold Banninger his panels has seen it. John Heis says most of his work is on homes, but people in his line of work in the South can earn a living just off the RV market.
“There’s a quite a market there to be done with RV people, certain parts of the United States where RV-ers live year-round, there are people that do make a living doing just that.”
Besides small dealers like Heis, large companies are finding a niche in RV solar too. Randy Bourne works at ICP Solar, a Canadian company that makes mobile solar products, like panels for RVs and boats. He says RVs are the company’s biggest market.
“Business has at least doubled over the past three to four years.”
Bourne says both consumers and manufacturers are demanding solar. One Oregon manufacturer, Monaco Coach, now offers a solar panel standard on its top-of-the-line model. Solar panels are optional on other Monaco models. They all come pre-wired so solar can be added later.
On RVs, solar panels charge the batteries that support the typical electrical systems. As RVs get bigger and more elaborate, new kinds of appliances and alarm and safety systems require power even when not in use. Randy Bourne says solar’s perfect for that.
“Solar and batteries go hand in hand. What the solar panels are doing now is putting in a small trickle charge to keep that battery well-maintained for a longer period of time.”
Cost depends on the extent of the system. Banninger estimated it cost him two thousand dollars for the panels and controller he installed five years ago. Today, Bourne says basic one-hundred watt panels cost between seven-hundred and nine-hundred dollars installed. That’s a relatively inexpensive option to add to high-end RVs, which can carry a price tag well into six figures.
RVs still use a tremendous amount of fuel going down the highway, but more and more, RVs are using the sun’s energy once parked, and some owners think in the long run, the solar-powered RV ends up using a lot less than driving from hotel to hotel. And the Banningers say that once they’re boondocked in the desert, with their solar panels catching the sun’s free rays, life is good.
Some people see living off the power grid as a good way to save money and energy. Others caution that living off-grid is more trouble than it's worth. (Photo by Johnny Waterman)
For most homeowners, electricity requires flipping a switch, plugging into an outlet – and writing a monthly check to the power company. Off the grid homeowners sometimes get to skip writing the monthly check to the power company. But the tradeoff might be climbing a 100-foot wind tower to make repairs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Cari Noga reports on what it takes to go off the grid and why some people are encouraged to find other ways to be environmentally friendly:
Transcript
For most homeowners, electricity requires flipping a switch, plugging into
an outlet, and writing a monthly check to the power company. Off the grid homeowners sometimes get to skip writing the monthly check to the power company. But the tradeoff might be climbing a 100-foot wind tower to make repairs. Cari Noga reports on what it takes to go off the grid and why some people are encouraged to find other ways to be environmentally friendly:
In most of the Midwest, both solar and wind power are needed for a home to go off-grid. That’s because the region doesn’t get enough sun in winter, or enough wind in summer. Dave Van Dyke has both. He’s had a 100-foot wind mill tower on his northern Michigan property for nearly 10 years.
“I’d guess there’s hundreds up in northern MI. They’re not so well known because they are small. Unless you’re in a place to see them, you don’t even notice them. Like mine. We’ve had one there since 96, and some of my neighbors in Maple City still don’t know it’s there, until I said something.”
Van Dyke and his wife first used solar panels and then added the small wind generator for their home’s energy needs. More recently, they started a farm business on their 31 acres and
bought a more powerful wind generator.
“Right from the start we’ve been interested in renewable energy. We
were just homesteaders, basically trying to figure out how this off the
grid homestead was going to evolve. It turned into a farm just three years
ago.”
Van Dyke uses wind and solar power because it’s environmentally friendly. But he says there are disadvantages to going off-grid. His first generator was problem free, but still required at least a yearly climb to maintain the tower.
The second generator has had a lot of mechanical problems. It was once down for eight months. The Van Dykes had to install a backup line connecting them to the grid. So it’s meant some work and inconvenience for them.
Jackie Ankerson lives near the Van Dykes. Two years ago she and her
husband installed a wind and solar system. She said because their 5-acre property is in a remote area, it helped justify the cost of between 15 and 17-thousand-dollars to go with the alternative generation system.
“Because of where we chose to live, it would have cost us almost as
much to bring in grid power as it did for our off-grid system.”
The desire to live in a remote place where power lines don’t run is a
common reason people install alternative energy systems. Another is a green conscience. John Heiss says he likes working with those homeowners. Heiss owns Northwoods Energy. Based in northern Michigan, he travels nine months of the year installing alternative home energy systems.
Heiss has customers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and even Mexico. Some want to control their own energy supplies, instead of relying on the power grid. Some are die-hard do-it-yourselfers. Others want to protect themselves from rising energy prices and diminishing supplies. They want to do their part to conserve fossil fuels.
“There’s a big consciousness. Right now we’re listening to our president tell us about an energy plan, and it’s not hitting any of these issues, and there’s people calling me every day asking about these issues, wanting to do something about it. They’re saying, well this is nuts.”
It’s a big change from 1992, when Heiss started his company. The first few years, business was slow. Today, his phone rings steadily.
“Somebody calls every day for something. I can really pick and choose who I do projects for, besides the fact that I have over 200 systems installed right now that I’m maintaining and servicing and keeping those alive, cause that’s a full time job at times..”
But Heiss winds up talking a lot of potential customers out of installing alternative energy. Maintenance is one reason. Others don’t realize how much power they use, and get sticker shock at the cost of a comparable alternative system. Instead of going off the grid, Heiss says those homeowners can help in other ways. He suggests they choose more efficient appliances and lighting. That minimizes the amount of power they need.
“It’s much easier not to spend as much money by changing lifestyle, and doing it without sacrificing, just making good choices.”
If homeowners still want alternative energy, they might need permits. More townships and counties are setting regulations, especially for wind towers. Some homeowners think it will all be worth it when they can sell surplus power back to the grid. But Heiss says they’re mistaken.
“A large percentage of people are misled, and think that they can make money selling renewable energy, power to electric companies. You’re not going to make it. You’ve got to realize at best it’s going to be a break even proposition.”
If a customer is not only willing to accept all that, but does so with a passion and enthusiasm, Heiss says he’s found someone he can work for.
Some environmentalists are concerned that the blackout that affected the Northeast and part of Canada might be used as an excuse to build more power plants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Some environmentalists are concerned that the blackout that affected the Northeast
and part of
Canada might be used as an excuse to build more power plants. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Experts don’t yet know all the factors that led to the power blackout. But
environmentalists
worry that private interests will take advantage of the situation and call for more
large nuclear and
coal-burning power plants. David Gard is with the Michigan Environmental Council.
“Clearly we know, experts have already said even though we don’t know the exact
cause of the
problem, we know for sure that it’s not an issue of not enough generation. We have
plenty of
power plants; we have plenty of supply. This is primarily a problem with
transmission and
getting energy that’s already been made to the end customer.”
Environmentalists say fixing the transmission bottle-necks, building a more diverse
system with
wind and solar power generation and real conservation measures such as more
efficient air
conditioners are better solutions than building big generating plants that pollute.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
An Ontario power company would like to see a high-powered transmission line built to Chicago. The plan includes stringing a high-voltage power line under Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
An Ontario power company would like to see a high-powered transmission
line built to Chicago. The plan would include stringing a high-voltage
power line under Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike
Simonson has more:
This plan is part of a project that would build high-capacity generating
plants in Ontario, selling excess power to the United States. Larry
Hebert is the general manager of Thunder Bay Hydro. He says this is at
least five years off. By that time, Hebert expects the demand for power
in the U.S. to increase.
“Certainly, the need for power doesn’t seem to be diminishing, despite the cries for conservation
and wise use of power. Certainly in this province of Ontario, we seem to be
using more and more every year.”
Hebert expects the most controversial part of the project will be laying
a 90-mile long cable under Lake Superior to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,
and run a high-voltage line down Wisconsin’s eastern side to Chicago.
Mary Pat Blankenheim with the Wisconsin-based American Transmission
Company says Thunder Bay Hydro’s proposal is intriguing.
“And especially given the fact that we are
looking for new ways of getting energy to the
areas where it’s needed.
But again the only way to get it there is by transmission.”
Hebert says they’re investigating permit applications with the Army Corp
of Engineers.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mike Simonson.
As summer approaches power companies will brace for rising demands for
electricity. During peak demand periods in past summers, utilities have
been caught short of power. However, deregulation of the electric power
industry has led to some innovative changes. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Michael Bernitsas, professor in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, stands before a prototype of his VIVACE hydrokinetic energy device. (Photo by Scott Galvin, courtesy of the University of Michigan)
